September 29, 2012

I did, and one of the things I said out loud while watching it was: "I'm glad I didn't blog that I was going to live-blog this." I had, however, blogged to predict that it would be boring, which it mostly was.

We did get some laughs, especially when Tommy said "I built Wisconsin," which he later modifed to "We built Wisconsin." I lost count of the number of times he said he was governor "for 14 years," which was nearly always followed by the statement that he lowered "taxes 91 times," which tied to Tammy having no "record to run on" and being "a taxer and a spender." Those were his talking points.
Tommy was all about how we here in Wisconsin already know him. He's Tommy — call me Tommy — and she's Tammy — you don't know her, but let me tell you she's the biggest liberal in the House, ranked #1 biggest taxer/spender, and that's not an easy achievement, to actually be #1.

Tommy was, well, Tommy. He, too, jumbled a few sentences, but Wisconsin has been bearing witness to his sporadic malapropisms for decades.

Hilarious video of Tommy at the 1997 Super Bowl embedded.

But Tommy seemed comfortable and confident. When he got rolling, he seemed fiery and knowledgeable. While Baldwin tried to wade through the weeds of issues, Thompson spoke over the moderators and to the eight people watching at home, using broader themes and more hopeful language.

The best part of the debate, however, was when the topics moved to foreign affairs. When I realized Thompson was going to attempt to say the name "Ahmadinejad," I squealed with joy like a little girl. It was a remarkable feat of courage - like the sprinter with no legs who made it to the Olympics. What came out of his mouth sounded more like an ancient spell than the Iranian leader's name - I had to check to see that I hadn't turned into a toad.

Toad?! I used that word out loud while watching the debate last night. I said Tommy looked like a toad. He's not a pretty man. (Wisconsin rejected the pretty man — Eric Hovde — in the primary.) But everyone looked awful in the lighting at that public-TV studio. Tammy has a shot at looking so much better than Tommy, but Wisconsin was getting its first long look at her in an extremely unflattering light, and that cut Tommy a break.

Also entertaining was watching Tommy answer a question about gay marriage. At one point during his answer, he paused for a good five seconds to navigate all the land mines that were likely lodged in his mind. It was evident he had a vision of Tammy Baldwin dancing with Wonder Woman floating around in his head and needed a quiet moment to suppress it.

But Baldwin really disappointed. At one point, she preposterously tried to paint herself as "bipartisan," which is like a cheetah trying to pass itself off as a vegetarian.

Yeah, she made a reference to some bill she had co-sponsored with Scott Walker back when she was a state legislator. She smiled primly, but said nothing of the subject matter of the bill, and Meade made up some title for the most uncontroversial and inconsequential piece of legislation ever, something like proclaiming Wauwatosa High School Marching Band the High School Marching Band of the Week.

The debate I and my S.O. will watch will be from WH. We want to see POTUS take on Romney, wash the floor. Oh, my, oh, my, we will all of the GOP crying and crying. It will be the evening from hell for Romney.

Also entertaining was watching Tommy answer a question about gay marriage. At one point during his answer, he paused for a good five seconds to navigate all the land mines that were likely lodged in his mind. It was evident he had a vision of Tammy Baldwin dancing with Wonder Woman floating around in his head and needed a quiet moment to suppress it.

Most interesting part of the debate to me was that, in talking about the issue of abortion, Tammy used the word "rare" as in safe, legal, and rare. That is after the DNC, in Charlotte, cut the word out of its abortion platform plank.

I had assumed Tommy would win the election pretty easily (even though it would have been nice to get some new blood in the seat), but then I saw a poll with Tammy ahead. Hard to believe with recent Wisconsin elections that Tammy would win. How dothings look now?

Brent, Be careful there's a deleter who gets cranky when he's been drinking. This is a place that can be cruel, but there's nothing neutral about it. It's Orwellian, Brent. All commenters are equal, but some are more equal than others. They're drifting downward and don't know what to do. They stopped the stupid word verification but like the FED they're out of options. Some race baiting posts are always good for comments. Maybe nude photos are coming??

Wisconsin has two decent high school marching bands, not Texas or Indiana good but for Wisconsin decent.

They are Waukesha North and Waukesha West High School. The rest of Wisconsin's high school marching bands are piss poor. Although, believe it or not River Falls is "ok"-I don't know where they get decent designers to go up there.

All my mom's friends in Waunakee are republican and she never says she's a big libtard. She just listens to them and gets all their republican emails and at their breakfasts she listens to them talk about Obama being a Muzzie.

Of course someone sent her the video of Tammy dancing with Wonder Woman, my mom felt sad.

I thought it strange the way Baldwin looked down almost before she finished speaking, as if she just remembered something for her grocery list and desperately needed to write it down. She seemed a bit scared camera shy.

Tommy mentioned his wife and family several times. His message seemed to be "I'm one of you. I'm from Wisconsin."

I really struggle with the notion of Wisconsin voting for a radical like Baldwin beyond DaneCo. It's unclear what she's offering that others can relate to in their own lives.

Sorun, That's the Wisconsin homosexual Senate seat. Herb Kohl is a closet homosexual, so this is a step out of the closet. There are other gay pols in Madison who can step into her seat. It's like gay musical chairs.

spinelli I spent a year in Madison and never saw any gay pols. I am like where the fuck are the gays?

And then you go to one of the hag pens, called bars, and it is the nastiest assortment of fags you could ever observe. They work in retail, social work, non profit, restaurants-in other words they are fucking poor and uneducated. It is completely the dregs of society and all of them are completely wasted, all of them are driving and some of them are driving back to Janesville or Columbus. And they all smoke. There was like one of each fag stereotype.

Big cities know better, the fags are segregated by type. And no intermixing-we dislike each other and don't want to know the other exists.

Fatties over here, leather down there, drags in the gutter, twinks at the cafe, muscleboys that way-and the groups shall never meet and if they do it is crusty looks all around.